Friday, March 30, 2012

Akata Witch (plus feminist Harry Potter too)

Because I really just needed to curl up with a book again, I chose Nnedi Okorafor's Akata Witch. I picked it because I like witches, I love Jillian Tamaki's art for the cover, and I hadn't read anything by Nnedi before. A delightful coming of age story about Sunny, a young albino African girl, Nigerian by ancestry, American by birth. It touched my longing for magic. It made me want to somehow obtain a juju knife. (It also made me want to make time for more reading in my life: there was this scene, where we see a witch absorbed in reading a very old dusty book, her hands are covered in the dust from the book, so is her beautiful expensive dress. She is deliciously covered in her book. Loved that image... yes. But I digress.)

Interestingly, I found Akata Witch to be a lot like a more female oriented, non-western Harry Potter. Which had me revisiting the Feminist Harry Potter tumbler, LOLing and pausing to think as I scrolled through the new content. Here's a few that struck me as applicable to issues Akata Witch addressed:

and...

Now don't get me wrong: I LUV HARRY POTTER. But it's eye opening. yes? You should really go check out the rest of Feminist Harry Potter's content; it is awesome.

Anyhow.. here, are few things others have said about Akata Witch:

"Young-adult fiction is influential; women and men often act out stories they read as teens. But try finding feminism in popular fantasies such as Stephenie Meyer's Twilight, or communities of color in Rowling's best-selling Harry Potter series. Nnedi Okorafor's books are a welcome contrast."~Ms Magazine review

"Akata Witch" is a much-needed addition to the many titles featuring Caucasian protagonists — one that will appeal to readers who are interested in foreign cultures, tradition and beliefs, or those who live between cultures themselves."~LA times review